China’s In Trouble

August 6, 2008

I bet a few critics of the IOC are giving their “I told you so” remarks right about now. Why? China’s in big trouble. After insurgent attacks in Western China, China’s is up to their necks in problems – as well as doubters. These attacks (which killed 20 border patrolmen) claimed to be in favor of independence in some of China’s Western providences. But everyone knows that they came at the perfect time – just days before the Beijing Olympics. And why are we so ticked off with this? In 2001, when China was given their Olympic stature, they vowed to do many things for the game, including limiting the violence and taking care of their human rights issues. If you ask a foreign policy hunk, they’ll most likely tell you that after seven years, they haven’t exactly fulfilled their promises. Their popular-with-the-press pollution problem doesn’t help either, as many athletes who arrived to the games wore masks off the plane.

But aside from that, one must wonder if another attack is in the making for Beijing. The Chinese government boasts they have foiled past plans, but many of us know that with China’s decreasing credibility, they are looking for anything to gain the press’s trust – and with China that sometimes leads to a habit of exaggerations. Aside from that, it looks like China isn’t very keen on getting very much outside press into their business – they weren’t soaccommodating to Japanese reporterscovering the insurgency attacks. They also don’t like the rest of the world reporting on the games, as they issued a countrywide internet blackout for websites that planned to cover the Olympics. They also sent out a list of websites that they did notwant to publish a word about their games, most international. China has also cut off internet access entirely in parts of their country, and one can only wonder why…

So here we have a country in which many people are speculating. It has in a sense failed its own promises. They have issued a media and internet blackout throughout their entire country and have set limits on all the worldwide media they can get their hands on. They aren’t exactly best of friends with America, and our athletes have showed their concern by wearing masks inside the air-conditioned Beijing airport. So with all this, one might conclude the US president should not be one of the spectators at the Olympics. This was something I was for until my brother brought me to my senses and gave me a great, but simple reason why this would be a horrible idea. He correctly stated that Bush would stir an already sticky situation by boycotting the Olympics.

Now this is a correct answer, but there is something he may not have thought of, and rightfully so. In this whirlwind of politics, one might forget what the Olympics really boil down to – sports. A gathering of world-class athletes couldn’t come in a more grand stage, and sometimes big time newspapers and writers can forget that. We’ve all had those moments sitting in front of the TV with a Coke in one hand and chips in the other with your buddies, and whether you are watching tennis or basketball, ski racing or baseball — pegging your friends with chips or chucking them at the players on TV – we’ve all felt at home. I remember watching the finals with a bunch of guys I spent a week with in some remote tennis camp (that’s another story), and they were all Boston Celtics fans. Crammed in a smelly breakfast room with a bunch of sweaty top US junior tennis players in a room with only two small rotating air-fans, I felt like some monk dude who found the connection with god. I had found the real essence of sports – rooting on a team with a bunch of other people who you knew nothing about other than the point that they liked another team. You hated them, but that just makes your connection with them more powerful. So this is why we should forget that maybe we made a bad decision by picking China to host the Olympics, but besides that, in the end it’s the game that matters. I’m sure if Bin Laden was a Red Sox fan and Bush was a Yankees fan they would get in a brawl, but in the end they are just sports fans. My point here? Sports isn’t just a game, it’s an escape from politics and the outside world. That’s why every country should be part of this celebration, and that’s why we should all forget the politics, cram ourselves in small bar with our buddies and stare at the TV screen, and be sports fans. Not politicians, presidents, citizens and terrorists, but just sports fans. And that’s all that we have in common these days.

4 Responses to “China’s In Trouble”

Wow!!!! Well….thank for the comment but I checked out your blog and….THAT is a huge one with a lot in it! and quality I must say! OK….I havent read everything…I would need days to do so but…honestly WOW!!!lol

As far as China’s concerned the Olympics are not about sports, they are about FACE, and most definitely politics.

As an expat living in Taiwan, I still feel disgusted that China was allowed to host the games, while their human rights abuses continue.

You may suggest that we should forget about the bad decision, and focus on the sport. How easy is that if China continues to abuse our rights, before, during, and most definitely after the games.

A Taiwanese cheerleading Team was refused entry into China. Could this have anything to do with the fact that the leader of the team was a DPP (the Taiwan pro-independence part) supporter.

Taiwan is still forced to participate under the name ‘Chinese Taipei’, and we have to use the Olympic flag, instead of our country;s flag.

I say our, because I have lived here for a long time, and this is now my home.

I will go to sleep tonight, knowing that China still has more than 700 missiles aimed at me, and in a way I wish that the Olympics will never end, because once its over China has nothing to lose, and they will most certainly focus on the Taiwan ‘issue’, after they have decisively dealt with Tibet of course

Your story is powerful and moving to me and anyone who will read it. As far as your third paragraph — to me sports and politics are a parallel universe that are impossible to be joined. And I will always think that. Talking political now, I think its brutal and horrible that all of these things are happening to you, but what good pressuring the Chinese do? Its true, China does not like Taiwan. Everyone has different opinions about politics, and mine happens to be on your side. But do you have a solution? I don’t. I would like to help, talking as America, but what can we do? You are in a stalemate with China. And the best thing to do is to keep it that way until someone gets an idea how to solve it. Look at the Georgans against the russians — they just pounced right at South Ossetia (i know excuse my spelling) and look what happened. You do not want that to happen to you.